Jennie-O’s new, improved turkey bacon makes debut

The new Jennie-O turkey bacon recipe has improved taste and texture, as well as a new zipper packaging to keep it fresh. It joins a full suite of Jennie-O breakfast products, including turkey breakfast sausage links and patties, as well as lean ground turkey.

"Jennie-O Turkey Store is on a mission to help the world discover the great taste of turkey. We encourage anyone who wants to give breakfast a wake-up call to try our new and improved Jennie-O turkey bacon," Jennie-O Turkey Store director of marketing Jen Ehresmann said.

Practicing at ‘the top of their profession’: are pharmacists able to fully contribute?

DENVER — The nation’s vast, multi-trillion dollar healthcare industry churns up plenty of statistics — a constant stream of them, in fact. But here’s one that may get your attention: nearly 70% of people in the United States don’t have or don’t use a primary care physician.

That bombshell was dropped on chain pharmacy leaders Sunday by NACDS board chairman and Walgreens president and CEO Greg Wasson, as reported by Alaric DeArment of Drug Store News. In a well-attended kickoff to the National Association of Chain Drug Stores’ 2012 Pharmacy and Technology Conference at the Colorado Convention Center, the top executive at the industry’s leading drug chain laid out an airtight case for expanding pharmacy’s role as a potential solution to many of the nation’s healthcare woes.

Emergency rooms are overflowing, Wasson said. Another 30 million to 40 million Americans will soon enter the health system as they gain insurance coverage through the healthcare-reform act. There already aren’t enough primary care physicians to handle the patient load. And the costs of primary care, let alone the costs of emergency room visits, are stretching healthcare budgets of both patients and health plan payers beyond the breaking point.

All those forces are pulling pharmacy retailers to step up their game, Wasson told NACDS members. "If pharmacists and nurse practitioners are allowed to practice at the top of their profession, our community pharmacies can provide a high percentage of primary care services in the U.S.," he said.

If pharmacists and NPs are given a full seat at the new healthcare table with all the health-and-wellness offerings they’re capable of providing — such as full-spectrum immunizations, health screenings, patient monitoring and medication therapy management — they can "change the face of healthcare in this country," said Walgreens’ CEO.

Wasson’s speech was a challenge to all pharmacy leaders. "Our product used to be dispensing pills safely and efficiently, but today our product is that and much more," he asserted. "Our product is an outcome — an improved health outcome — that only a face-to-face encounter with a community pharmacist can accomplish."

Notwithstanding the huge and constantly growing volume of prescriptions that need to be dispensed to aging Americans and the increasing complexity of pharmaceutical treatments, is Wasson on solid ground with what the typical community pharmacist can accomplish? Granted, workplace automation, e-prescribing and the centralizing of administrative and claims adjudication tasks by many chains may be easing dispensing workloads for pharmacists, particularly as pharmacy techs step up their own training and skills. But so far, at least, are those steps enough to let pharmacists "practice at the top of their profession" and fully contribute to a health system that clearly needs their full engagement?

Crossmark profiled in Dallas Morning News

PLANO, Texas — Sales and marketing services company Crossmark makes sure that “products are in the right place at the right price in the right assortment in the right display location and the products are locally and seasonally relevant.” That is what Joe Crafton, Crossmark’s president, told the Dallas Morning News, which recently profiled the company.

The profile on the Plano, Texas-based company ran in the business section of Sunday’s edition of the Dallas Morning News. The article discusses how Crossmark, once known as Salesmark, moved up through the ranks over the years to become the sales and marketing services industry giant that it is today.

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